by Fey Truet
I looked down and shook my head.
If this is where he lives. Where he calls home, then he’ll be back.
I walked to the end of the Setes property and sat.
Even if this goes terribly wrong, I’m not giving up. I can’t!
I at least had to see him.
I waited. It grew awfully dark. The street became terribly quiet and all the stars glowed in the sky. I counted them and eventually lost count. I hugged my legs when the cold began to get to the weaker parts of me.
I ignored creatures that wailed and banged around in darker shadows. There was a reason why I never stayed out this late.
Time passed without a hint of Pohlin’s return.
It frightened me that he would stay out this late. If I left to find him I’d become lost as I had earlier and befall a fate worse than never seeing him again.
“Oh, Pohlin.”
I turned and jumped up, spotting a figure emerging from around the block. When I saw the figure heading this way I waited patiently. I smiled as emotions I couldn’t contain found their way out, but my smile soon faltered as the figure came into view.
I soon saw that it wasn’t a boy now thirteen years of age. It was a woman limping slowly towards me.
I felt terribly cold then. My eyes couldn’t even blink.
The woman’s face was obscured by dark curls that cascaded down her white robes. She walked on scabbed, bare feet. You could follow the scratches up to where her knee disappeared behind her robe. One of her knees was completely twisted sideways.
I was frozen in place as she came nearer. I could only stare at her when she stopped several feet in front of me, her head still inclined.
She had no scent despite being incredibly unkempt and covered in festering injuries. Her arms and the bottom of her robes were covered in gray mud. Her hair was actually a light color soaked in dirt and grime. I just about gagged when I saw what she was holding in her other hand.
A child’s hand?!
The severed arm of a child dangled from her hand.
She lifted her head up to the sky, the crack of every bone, ligament, and tendon audible, her hair covering her face like a veil.
She rasped once, and then choked unlike any human, in that it sounded more like two rocks being snapped together than a woman’s tight throat.
“Have you seen her?” she rasped out. “I’ve been looking everywhere? Why haven’t I seen her yet? Can’t I find her? Have you seen her?” she asked, and wave after wave of cold chills ran up my body.
“S-S-Seen? Sen-Seen wh-who?” I sputtered out.
“Have you seen her? Have you seen my daughter? I’ve looked everywhere?”
I shook my head no, but I wasn’t sure if she’d seen the movement because my entire body quivered against the motion.
The woman cocked her head to me in one motion with a loud “Pop.”
Cold ran me through like a sword of ice.
The simple motion brushed the hair out of the woman’s face, revealing reddened yellow teeth surrounded by red glistening skin festering around the edges where her lips should be. Her entire face was gray behind her flat, festering nose, but her eyes terrified me the most.
They were a free red. No whites. No pupils.
They were a nightmare.
Is she what a ghoul is?
“You lie?” she rasped out.
I forgot my breath, frantically shaking my head.
There was another series of pops as she hunched back over. After a moment she continued on her way, and I watched her until she disappeared from sight.
Even then, I didn’t move. I don’t know how long it was, but when my bones grew stiff and my skin too tight, and the minutes grew too close to my final hour without Pohlin’s return. I left the cake with the post and left Opticon Place, praying for Pohlin’s safe return.
~~~
I turned to stare at Oeffing from the hill at the edge of The Forest of Last Dreams.
Tears of loss poured down my face. Tears of regret.
If I had met William even a day sooner we could’ve been great friends.
If I would’ve gained the courage much earlier, I could’ve said goodbye to my brother.
Why couldn’t I give Scarlet a more heartfelt farewell?
Why did I go off on Celia and leave her on such bad terms?
Why was it so important for me to keep my mother’s promise? It seems because of that one little thing, everything was all wrong. Or maybe it was because I broke the other promise?
Did I have a choice though? I couldn’t keep one without breaking the other!
The demon was right.
“She contradicted herself, that mother of yours. Could it be that she never saw you as I do now?”
His words ran rampant through my head.
Mother was selfish in her final wishes. So much so that she contradicted herself. That contradiction drove a wedge between Pohlin and I. Drove a wedge in my life.
And I let it.
Choices were for the living, but I let mother take mine.
Even when I had none left for myself.
I knew that.
But even so, what drove me so fiercely? Why didn’t I give up? Why wasn’t I giving up now? I had nothing. I have nothing now. Not even my brother.
“Pohlin!” I cried, hoping he’d hear. That’d he’d come to stop me.
Only he never came.
I’d never see him again. I didn’t even know his face now. If it changed.
I shook more in fear now than when I was accosted by that strange wom—creature.
Fear and grief.
Running out of time, I turned and began the trek through the forest to the place that could very well be my grave. This was worse than death, though.
I knew.
I had almost died.
And the death I would’ve suffered years before would’ve been quick and nearly painless. It was very numb.
What I was doing now felt equivalent to gouging out my younger eye. It was as if I were severing my own limbs or digging my own grave. Walking to my own death. It was so unlike the day I died. I didn’t choose to die then. I hadn’t given up. I was choosing to do this.
I had no choice. I was giving up.
It was very dark and so noisy. My heart started at every crunching step or snap of a stick. My heart, the sniffles, and the hiccups I just couldn’t seem to reign in.
The fear. It rushed loudly in my ear.
I could barely see, and that made me any night creature’s dream.
I couldn’t say it was a relief when I came to the opening I vaguely remembered from that night so many years ago.
The leaf-like grass lay flat and gray along the earth in a clockwise direction in the small area, surrounded by twelve twisted, gnarled, dark colored trees that bent towards the ground rather than the sun. These trees all seemed dead but were merely sleep for the winter.
All of them but one.
The one straight across from me.
It was pale as the moon and stood high and erect even though I could tell it was deader than a rotting corpse. And on its trunk, right where I remembered, was the book at the end.
I saw no demon so I waited. Only, after what felt like forever, he never came.
“Am I really to believe that I am being stood up?” I couldn’t hold to myself, though I didn’t dare hope that was the truth lest it was snatched from me.
It would mean a second chance.
Twice to do everything right.
A chance to keep my promises. Promises that would no longer be a burden.
As I thought such things, a flash from the pale tree pulled me away from my hopes.
When I looked, there was no light, only dark.
“Now I hallucinate in my misery?”
I moaned, but in a blink I might have seen it again.
Unable to help myself, I wandered over to the tree and leaned closer to inspect the book symbol carved into the end.
I saw that it
wasn’t merely carved, but also embellished in the grooves was a shiny metal that glimmered like the stars. The beauty of it seemed to suck up all my sorrows, and, stupefied by its beauty, I touched it.
I instantly regretted it.
At my touch the book warmed and lit as if it were the sun, engulfing me in all its incredible white light. I was blinded, and had to keep my eyes closed for all I saw was light. The heat became so stifling; it was all I could do to breathe.
This was impossible.
The heat.
Couldn’t breathe.
I forced my eyes open, and there in front of me was the only shadow in this hell.
I reached for it, seeing there was no longer a ground for me to walk on.
My eyes burned, but I could see myself being drawn to it, and when I was close enough, I grabbed it.
An open book with blank pages.
Ink soaked in the page, the book creating its own composition until the page was all black.
Then my own world went blank.
Tails Tales
“Ah!” I screamed as I jumped up.
The room was filled with gray daylight.
The room?
A room that wasn’t my own.
I looked around.
This room had a dark blue carpeted floor, and was by far bigger than the living room, kitchen, and dining room in my house put together. There were shelves and shelves of books that all seemed to be built into the wall. So many in fact I couldn’t tell what color the wall was. Or if there was a wall.
I looked up, and blue bulb after blue bulb obscured the entire ceiling.
I looked down at myself and saw that I wore a light brown blouse under a dark brown vest. I never wore skirts, but I had on a crimped skirt that went down to mid-thigh, and tights that went down to my ankles, both the same color brown as my vest. Light brown socks, the same color as my blouse, folded to meet my tights.
The room smelled abandoned. Stale even, but all was quiet.
I saw that I had kicked a thick yellow bedspread off of me and had sunk in an awfully comfy cushion. I could see that it was slightly elevated off the ground and partially surrounded by a box engraved with vines and flowers.
I took my fingers and traced the pattern until I got to fancy letters inscribed in the center.
“What does this say?” I asked but was unnerved by how loud the quiet question echoed in the room.
I got up and found a pair of pale brown rawhide boots. I slipped them on and looked around the room, suddenly very unsettled that someone had brought me here and changed my clothes as well.
I grabbed my head. “What happened?”
I took a huge gulp of air and stood up. I walked around, and to my horror, I couldn’t find a door. Anywhere.
I went over and drew back the heavy curtains to find a window. It revealed that small clearing in The Forest of Last Dreams. The sky was downcast, but there was no hint of snow or rain. It had been a warmer winter night when I left, so how long was I asleep for?
“Strange,” I thought out loud.
There were no houses that I could see when in that small clearing, but being here seemed to prove me wrong. I wanted to investigate, but try as I might, I couldn’t open or smash the window.
Pacifying my qualmish heart, I stepped away and walked around the room.
“Looks like I’m stuck here for the time being.”
There was nothing to be done about it but to learn my surroundings and prepare my heart.
I gawked at the spines of old, colorful books with so many different types of lettering. I pulled out an algae green book and flipped through it, disappointed it had no pictures. None of them did. Only words I couldn’t read.
I walked away a bit disappointed.
“I guess What is Love? is the only book I know how to read.”
And that was only because Father read it to Pohlin and I so many times the words embedded themselves in my head.
“Oof!” I yelped, tripping over a small table that seemed to come out of nowhere. I along with the table’s contents toppled to the floor.
“Where in Greeves did that come from?”
I crawled to the table and set it upright. Luckily I didn’t make a mess.
Two unmarked bottles, one of water and the other of an orange drink, and two blocks neatly wrapped in multiple layers of cheesecloth lay on the floor.
My nose flared when the saccharine smell of the food hit.
I drooled. “Hm, that smells good.”
“MmmRowlll!” my stomach agreed. I never heard it growl so loud.
It was then I felt something.
It started as a cramp but instantly grew into a geyser that shriveled my bones and scalded my muscles, organs, and flesh, turning my blood into boiling stew.
I doubled over and couldn’t help but scream out. I squeezed my eyes shut, forcing pained tears from them.
“Mn! Help!” I squeaked, but no one came.
The pain sharply folded, sapping away all my strength and I collapsed flat to the ground. I grunted and rolled over like a screw being turned. I must’ve rolled some more because I heard a crunch.
“What’s happening to me?!” I cried out.
I tried to open my eyes, bawling when I couldn’t.
It made it all the more terrifying.
I tried to clear my mind, but all it screamed was IT HURTS! OH! HOW IT HURTS!
I shouted out and howled and sniveled to no avail for as long as my pangs of distress lasted. When I began taking huge gulps of air, the pain calmed to some degree, and I lay on the ground not daring to move. Finally, I managed to pry my eyes open, a lake swilling out of them hitting white.
White?
Under my head was a crumpled piece of paper folded in a square.
I risked uncrossing my arms and grabbed it. I saw that it had a huge red picture with a large red and black eye on the other side.
A message to look?
I opened it.
Inside it displayed a series of crudely drawn images that looked suspiciously like me.
The first was a girl doubled over in pain. Next to it was one of her drinking from an empty bottle. The last picture on that row had her in a mighty stance smiling.
I stared silently at the pictures trying to gather my scrambled mind.
Are these…instructions?
My eyes wandered to the bottles that fell off the table. The water. Was that supposed to help me? The empty bottle? Or water?
Oh!
I lifted my head off the floor and pushed the rest of my body up.
“Uhn,” I grunted, the pain edging back into my every movement.
I used my fingers to drag the water to me and drank it as soon as I had it. I wish I hadn’t.
“Ugh!” I wiped my mouth, barely able to open it.
I looked at the bottle, mortified to see it empty. Then I tossed it away.
The first few gulps I got down in desperation. In my haste, I hadn’t noticed the taste. But suddenly a taste I could hardly describe, only that it was tart and salty, spoiled sharply, and somewhere in that brew, way too sweet. It was an overall disagreeable, unpleasantly pungent taste. And the fact that the liquid was as fluid as water in the bottle but turned thicker than molasses in my mouth, well, it was no wonder it stuck to my tongue like ancient taffy.
I felt the warmth leave my face, for the taste seemed fixed to my tongue for eternity. And though I realized I was no longer in pain, I felt fatigued and woozy. My arms slid apart, my chin crashing to the floor. I’m sure I bit my tongue, but I couldn’t feel it.
I dragged my arms like heavy sacks to my face and looked at the second line of instructions.
This time the girl looked pale. In the next picture after she took a huge bite of what looked like red cheese.
I looked at the two packages wrapped in cheesecloth, my body cringing. The one with the red ribbon.
Red Cheese?
The thought almost made me gag.
I was reluctan
t to eat cheese that was red after the watery substance turned out to be polluted, and not at all water.
Someone wants to poison me.
I looked at the last picture and the girl looked willing to put up a fight.
I wasn’t, but I still reached out for the block tied with the red ribbon. It took nearly all my strength to pull the knot out of the ribbon, but when I did, the cloth gave way to reveal a fudge-like substance.
At least it isn’t red.
I couldn’t raise it to my mouth so I let my face fall on top of it and held my breath before taking a bite. It dissolved within seconds in my mouth and was as bland as air. Even so, I ate it up like a pig at feeding time, and within seconds it was gone.
With ease, I pushed myself up in a wonder.
Just moments ago I could barely move. Now with some of my strength back I could sit up.
I referred to the instructions once more.
The girl now had the orange drink and drank it. In the picture below it, she was eating something gold and shiny. The final picture had her holding a pendant of some sort around her neck.
“Huh?” I blinked.
I reached up to the abrupt chafing around my neck and felt leather?
I pulled it out enough to see it was a rawhide… collar.
“What?!” I asked as I tried in vain to pull it off.
Collars were for vexed nobles and loyal pets, and I was neither.
After several futile minutes of trying to free myself, I found the pendant on the collar that was in the picture. A tiny book with the word, “Emare” on it. My name.
“What?” I asked again with a groan. Then I was silent for a long moment. “This is not funny,” I told myself.
I wondered if this was the demon’s doing. If so, then what were his plans for me? He didn’t kill me.
That woman, the creature I saw before I succumbed to this fate, would I eventually follow in likeness?
I felt tears burn my eyes, but they were soon interrupted by a monstrous sound.
“MmmRuumm!” my stomach growled as if I hadn’t just eaten.
“Why must you always be a bother!” I yelled at it.
It merely growled again, so I reached for the orange liquid I couldn’t be sure was juice. I opened it and its enticing smell overwhelmed me.